Media Release

Alberta Government’s Fixed Election Date Legislation a “Misnomer"

EDMONTON, AB – “The Alberta Government has defined an election period, however it is not quite what we understood Premier Redford’s promise to be”, according to Glenn Taylor, Leader of the Alberta Party. “She promised fixed election dates and didn’t deliver.” The bill will designate that elections must be called between March 1 and May 31 every four years.

“This bill does very little to alleviate the uncertainty that non-fixed election dates cause,” says Taylor. “This bill may have diminished the window of uncertainty to a three month timeframe, but without a fixed date, it still limits election preparation.”

Government House leader Dave Hancock says that the flexibility of a few months’ timeframe allows for an election date to be based on unforeseen circumstances. Hancock used the example of setting a potential election date for later in the spring after a long and hard winter, if needed. Alberta Party MLA Dave Taylor is not convinced.

“The weather will not deter people from getting to the polls,” says Dave Taylor. “Albertans are better at doing winter than the government is at doing democracy, it seems.”

The Alberta Party released their policy on democratic renewal earlier this year, in which it commits to legislate fixed election dates, in order to reduce uncertainty in the legislature, Alberta Public Service and all organizations that work in government.